taken 12 years ago, near to Birkenhead, Wirral, Great Britain

Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre

I sat overlooking the construction of the new Liverpool Arena with my back to the Albert Dock complex and the Beatles museum. The sky was grey and there was a blustery wind and occasional light drizzle. The ‘Yellow Submarine’ amphibian tour bus cruised by in the dock. Beatles music competed with the noise from the construction site. Hoardings displaying impressions of the finished landscape barely constrained the concrete-steel monster being built inside. To the east and south the older buildings of the city with their kaleidoscope of architectural styles looked on like a perverse crowd of silent spectators. The recently completed, whitewashed apartment block stood within its security fence, CCTV cameras and security gates controlling access like some Foucaultian institution. There were signs of habitation, but no-one entered or left while I was there. To the west was the River Mersey, a half-submerged traffic cone drowning slowly in its muddy sediments close to the old stone dock wall. Birkenhead on the opposite bank of the Mersey stood like a poor relation, watching in silence as its neighbour enjoyed its latest magazine-cover makeover like some better-treated half-brother.